EVERYTHING BUT IMAGINARY #249: LADIES NIGHT AT THE COMIC SHOP

[Blake Petit]

In last week’s epic and world-changing edition of Everything But Imaginary, we talked about the comics that are available to and appropriate for young readers. To my great delight, this encouraged a voracious and heated discussion that is still being contained by California wildfire experts even as we speak.

Today we’re going to look at the other neglected demographic in the comic book market – female readers. Like I said last week, the comic industry for the last several decades has been a big boys’ club. This wasn’t always the case. In the Golden and Silver Ages, there were a great many comic books written for and targeted at girls. The thing is, even back then, most of these comics were created by men who had a very June Cleaver-ish view of what girls wanted. Today’s female reader wouldn’t put up with it. If I went to Comixtreme’s Editor-In-Chief, Andrea Speed, with issues of Little Lulu and True Romance and said, “Look! Now they’re making comics for you!” she would justifiably crack my skull open with her fabled mace.

But I’m not here to debate the sins of the past, I want to talk about what women would want out of comic books now. And here’s the thing I think will surprise people… women want exactly the same thing as men: engaging characters, intelligent stories and great art. The thing is, although there will certainly be some overlap, the average woman and average man may have differing opinions as to what meets that criteria. Joe Comic Shop may think that a Jim Balent Tarot issue with clothes consisting of three pieces of dental floss and a broken corn flake is the pinnacle of the comic artform. His sister Jane Comic Shop (Mr. and Mrs. Comic Shop are terribly unimaginative when it came to naming their children) will look at the same issue and want to use it for firelighters.

What’s the difference? I’ll put this on the record guys: I think Jim Balent is a good artist. It isn’t his style that turns off women readers, it’s his chosen subject matter, i.e., large-chested women wearing nothing but Scotch tape. Clear Scotch tape.

That’s the thing: I think, with rare exceptions, it’s stupid to try to aim a comic at just women, because women (all three billion of them) are different. They like different things, different stories, different characters, different genres. It would be the height of hubris (approximately 47 feet, 9 inches) to assume you have created a comic that “women,” as a demographic, will all like. So what’s the trick?

It’s actually pretty simple.

Don’t insult them.

It’s nigh-impossible to make a list of things that will appeal to all women, but it’s easier to come up with a list of things that will offend most of them, the aforementioned ginormous… “talents” on Jim Balent’s characters being near the top of the list. If all the women in a comic book are built like a plastic surgeon’s retirement fund, you’ll turn off a lot of women readers. The same goes for books where all of the women are bed-hoppers, weak and submissive, or obnoxious shrews. For a complete checklist of negative female stereotypes, please refer to any Chuck Austen-penned issue of Uncanny X-Men.

Does that mean you can never depict a female character that way? Of course not. There are women that are shrews, submissive or bed-hoppers, just as there are men who are jerks, self-absorbed slobs or wife-beaters. It isn’t a good thing, it’s just reality. And if it fits the story, most of us will accept the use of those archetypes once in a while. But if all your characters of a certain gender are portrayed in the same way, you’re left with X-Men: She Lies With Angels (or, on the flipside, any Lifetime Channel Original Movie).

And sometimes, good writing can overcome a stereotype. Power Girl, for example, is one of the most… um… well-endowed characters in the DC Universe, but despite that, my girlfriend Erin once told me she’s one of her favorite characters. Why? Because when she’s written well (I’m looking at you, Geoff Johns), she’s a smart character, a powerful woman (both physically and emotionally) and really interesting to read about. Heck, she’s the current leader of the world’s first superhero team, and she’s earned that post! It seems like forever ago that DC announced she’ll get her own ongoing series after Final Crisis is over, and neither Erin nor I can wait.

Erin is a comic reader, although not as voracious a reader as I am. Her tastes run towards the DCU, Vertigo, and a few other assorted titles. In fact, there’s only one Marvel book she’s ever read long-term: Dan Slott’s She-Hulk. (It is only fair to point out here that Erin usually gets her comics in trade paperbacks, and thus has not yet sampled Peter David’s take on the character.) She absolutely loved that book, and when I told her I was writing a column about comics for women, she insisted I include Jen Walters. I told her I’d go one better – I asked her to explain, in her own words, just what she likes about the character. Here’s what she said:

She’s super smart and strong whether she is Jen or She-Hulk, she’s not afraid to be smart in front of other people, she’s not afraid to be strong, especially in front of men, she’s not afraid of her own sexuality either, and is not concerned with what others around her think (except for that whole Juggernaut thing).

In other words, she loves her for being a well-rounded and believable woman. (And it’s worth pointing out that for settling that “whole Juggernaut thing,” Dan Slott deserves at bare minimum the Nobel Peace Prize.)

It’s worth mentioning here that there are a lot of really good comics aimed at young women. Now girls, like women, are all different and have different tastes, but having a strong female lead (essentially, a role model) when the reader is young can often make the book more relatable and enjoyable to a little girl. I always sing the praises of Amelia Rules!, but it’s worth saying one more time – the book rocks. If I had a daughter in elementary school, I’d buy her every trade paperback. Our own Richard Davidson, in his Four-Color Commentaries column for this week, mentioned James Robinson and Paul Smith’s Leave it to Chance. Another excellent title, and at the top of my list of defunct comics I want to see coming back from the dead. For slightly older girls, young teens, Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane is a good pick. I know that may sound like a stereotype, but I teach 9th grade. At least 50 percent of the girls in my class who read read books like Gossip Girl. I think Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane would be right up their alley, if only Marvel would hurry up and give us the promised relaunch by Terry Moore.

On to the other big question: availability. Like kids, women won’t buy comic books if they don’t know where to get them. Neil Gaiman’s Sandman is often cited as one of the benchmarks in getting women to read comics. You know why that is? Because it’s one of the first comics to get widespread penetration in the bookstore market. In other words: DC put a really good comic where women could find it, so they did read it. In fact, I would be willing to bet that if someone could compile the ratio of male-to-female shoppers in comic shops compared to comic shoppers in bookstores, the bookstore ratio (while still not even) would be much closer to achieving parity than the comic shop ratio.

Finding comic shops is a problem, but no bigger a problem for women than men, so we’ll leave that discussion for another time. The bigger problem today is keeping women in the shop after they do find it. In Erin’s home town of Pittsburgh, PA, there’s a shop where she was treated very rudely, very condescendingly, and utterly dismissed by an employee because she was a girl. She didn’t return to that shop for years, until I asked her to show me all of the shops in town for an Everything But Imaginary column. She was happy, when we got there, to find a new and far more courteous staff, and in fact, that particular store was my favorite of the ones she showed to me.

But there are so many shop owners, managers, and staff around the country that still stupidly insist on alienating half the potential clientele. A comic shop should not be a dark, dusty, out-of-the-way place where only the “inner circle” of dorks is welcome. We’re talking about a business here. If people don’t give you money, you go out of business. Why some people insist on an elitist attitude in these circumstances is utterly beyond me.

But for the sake of those comic shop owners who don’t realize they are being – and this is highly scientific terminology – yutzes, here are the two most surefire ways to irritate a female potential customer:

1. Snobbery. Look down your nose, assume they don’t know anything and treat them like they have no business setting foot in your precious story. Do that, and it’s probably the last time they’ll set foot in your shore, too.

2. Drool over them. Gape, fawn, gush and basically act like a twitterpated moron who hasn’t seen anyone with breasts (except, of course, for your mother) in seven years. You won’t see them again, either.

Here’s a wild idea, guys: treat women like people. Believe it or not, they’ll actually respond.

So in short, friends, the only thing you need to do differently for women than men is treat them with respect. Er… actually, you should treat men with respect too. I guess I mean you should stop treating women with disrespect. Both in writing and drawing the stories and in selling them to women… respect them.

And the fact that I needed to use 1700 words to point that fact out is kinda sad, isn’t it?

Favorite of the Week: January 23, 2008

It’s always nice when a newcomer appears on the “favorite” list, and for Jan. 23 I’ve got to give props to Blue Beetle #23. While this is consistently one of DC’s most underrated titles, this is the first issue to really wow me into “favorite” territory. Jaime Reyes has really evolved as a character, formulating his own plan to take down the aliens planning a horribly subtle invasion of Earth, proving himself truly evolved as a hero in the process. John Rogers has really made me love this character, really made him his own hero while still respecting the characters who bore the name before. This was all-around an excellent issue.

Blake M. Petit is the author of the superhero comedy novel, Other People's Heroes, the suspense novel The Beginner and the weekly “Think About It” humor column at Think About It Central. He’s also the co-host, with the inimitable Chase Bouzigard, of the 2 in 1 Showcase Podcast. E-mail him at Blake@comixtreme.com and visit him on the web at Think About It Central.

[Ryan Broussard]

For a complete checklist of negative female stereotypes, please refer to any Chuck Austen-penned issue of Uncanny X-Men.

best sentence you have ever written

[Mark Blicharz]

You forgot Chuck Austin's interpretation in Action.

[Blake Petit]

Originally Posted by Mark Blicharz

You forgot Chuck Austin's interpretation in Action.

No, no... I'm just trying to...

[Jason Kanno]

Chuck Austen on Action Comics? What are you.... waitasec, I think I remem*


AAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE EEEEEEE!!! *runs screaming into the night*


I feel like we really need a smiley that's screaming hysterically to accompany a forehead slap smiley.

[B. Schatz]

Originally Posted by Blake Petit

At least 50 percent of the girls in my class who read read books like Gossip Girl. I think Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane would be right up their alley, if only Marvel would hurry up and give us the promised relaunch by Terry Moore.

Forgiving the part that I actually know this, but yeah. I think that would work. Although the characters in SMLMJ are FAR less conceited than the ones in Gossip Girl.

[Andrea Speed]

If I went to Comixtreme’s Editor-In-Chief, Andrea Speed, with issues of Little Lulu and True Romance and said, “Look! Now they’re making comics for you!” she would justifiably crack my skull open with her fabled mace.

Crack your skull if you're lucky. There's much worse things I could do, some involving fire, and others involving ignored Geneva Conventions. A skull cracking is just too quick.

Forgiving the part that I actually know this, but yeah. I think that would work. Although the characters in SMLMJ are FAR less conceited than the ones in Gossip Girl.

True, and I think this would be a great comic for teen readers of that age ... but not all. For those who read Gossip Girl and things of that ilk, you have to look at what it is: escapism. Women often have different avenues of escapism than men. That's why superheroes are looked at as a predominately male category, because a lot of it is based on male power fantasies. But females have them too, they just translate a bit differently. Having said that, most girls who want female power fantasies in the male superhero mold drift over to manga, where schoolgirls who fight evil robot czars from the Zzebot universe is now a hoary tradition.

What I think would be fantastic would be if American comic makers could tap into that desire for a female power equivalent fantasy. Buffy should probably be the template, with sex and violence toned down (or up, I suppose, depending on the audience age you're aiming for), although I agree Leave It To Chance was another great run at it. The problem is, the big two can't seem to get a handle on it. They point to stuff like Ms. Marvel or Black Canary as "strong female characters", and that's all fine and good, but speaking from a female perspective - assuming I know nothing at all about these characters; assume these are the first time I'd heard of them - I'd instantly dismiss them as guy stuff. Why? You got it - all I'm seeing is a chesty blonde woman in a swimsuit or a chesty blonde woman in a swimsuit and fishnets. It looks like pure guy stuff to me. Maybe when you know more about the characters, that's a less valid argument - but you have to get to know the characters first, and actually want to do so. And therein lies the problem.

And don't even ask me about Bomb Queen.

[Blake Petit]

Heh... yeah, how DID Bomb Queen somehow get a "get out of jail free" card to get away with all those stereotypes?

[Terry Verticchio]

Because BQ wins all the time.

[tonight]

I would just like to add that comics from countries other than the US very often have stories and characters that show a whole spectrum of three-dimensional female characters, of which many are in principal roles.

[Blade X]

Originally Posted by Mark Blicharz

You forgot Chuck Austin's interpretation in Action.

I was actually enjoying Austin's run on ACTION until I read that issue where he STRONGLY IMPLIED that a villain from the bottled city of Kandor raped a lady to death. Talk about a sick twisted fanboy sex fantasy.

[ErinPatricia]

I know you wanted me to comment on this, but you kind of covered most of my gripes lol.

**edited**
untill I thought more about it and wrote the post below lol

[ErinPatricia]

Originally Posted by Andrea Speed

- I'd instantly dismiss them as guy stuff. Why? You got it - all I'm seeing is a chesty blonde woman in a swimsuit or a chesty blonde woman in a swimsuit and fishnets. It looks like pure guy stuff to me. Maybe when you know more about the characters, that's a less valid argument - but you have to get to know the characters first, and actually want to do so. And therein lies the problem.

And don't even ask me about Bomb Queen.

Exactly.
The first time Blake told me to read She Hulk I sort of dismissed it as another "Big boobs,skimpy outfit,not so much on the brains" until he described the character to me. (I never really had much love for Marvel stuff too btw.)
Shes a lawyer? She has a real job, real intelligence and an actual personality thats not just window dressing for said swimsuit and fishnets?
Sounds good, and I did go into it expecting to be pandered to by some moron who thought he knew how to write a woman...and I was pleasantly suprised.
Same with Power Girl. Also one of my other favoritres,Harley Quinn. Both could easily fit into the "I am nothing but a great body in a costume" role that so many female characters seem to. But what drew me to those 2 (and She Hulk/Jen Walters) was the fact that they were so much more human.
Look at Harley, bad relationship choices, a manipulative boyfriend, Except for the whole insanity and murderous supervillian thing that was my first relationship in college. The character spoke to me and intrigued me because I could in some way, no matter how small it was, relate to her.
That, for me, makes a character more engaging.

[Blake Petit]

Originally Posted by ErinPatricia

Exactly.
The first time Blake told me to read She Hulk I sort of dismissed it as another "Big boobs,skimpy outfit,not so much on the brains" until he described the character to me. (I never really had much love for Marvel stuff too btw.)
Shes a lawyer? She has a real job, real intelligence and an actual personality thats not just window dressing for said swimsuit and fishnets?
Sounds good, and I did go into it expecting to be pandered to by some moron who thought he knew how to write a woman...and I was pleasantly suprised.
Same with Power Girl. Also one of my other favoritres,Harley Quinn. Both could easily fit into the "I am nothing but a great body in a costume" role that so many female characters seem to. But what drew me to those 2 (and She Hulk/Jen Walters) was the fact that they were so much more human.
Look at Harley, bad relationship choices, a manipulative boyfriend, Except for the whole insanity and murderous supervillian thing that was my first relationship in college. The character spoke to me and intrigued me because I could in some way, no matter how small it was, relate to her.
That, for me, makes a character more engaging.

It's so nice to have you posting here.

[Andrea Speed]

Heh... yeah, how DID Bomb Queen somehow get a "get out of jail free" card to get away with all those stereotypes?

She didn't. She's meant as a "bad girl" parody, which was clear in the opening pages of the first issue (you have to get past the cover, though - luckily my occasional job as advance reviewer forces me to do this). The same tropes are used as in the regular bad girl books, admittedly, and damn there's a lot of nudity, but there's a very sick, dark sense of humor anchoring it all, and that's the kind of humor I enjoy. And she gets to be just as appalling as a male supervillain, which isn't always the case with the female supervillain - they're often not allowed to be as perverted and disgusting as the men. So there's a strange sense of parity.

And oh yeah, she kicks a lot of butt.

[Blake Petit]

Well, when you put it THAT way...

[Zap Rowsdower]

Originally Posted by Blake Petit

For a complete checklist of negative female stereotypes, please refer to any Chuck Austen-penned issue of Uncanny X-Men.

I once asked Chuck how he dealt with people offended by his portrayal of female characters. He told me that it's easy to get back into a woman's good graces.

You just have to compliment them on their hair, or say they look like they lost weight, whichever is more plausible.

Ok, fine, that never actually happened. But it probably would have....

[chrismozer]

Originally Posted by Ryan Broussard

best sentence you have ever written

I remember Blake hating Chuck Austen during his Superman stuff! Good to see that some things never change!

[Blake Petit]

Just like true love, there are some hatreds that are too pure, too clean to ever fade...

[Arsenal7]

**wife of arsenal7 posting**
Blake, in addition to store owners who don't know what to do with female readers, I'd posit that the publishers aren't exactly feeling the X chromosome either. I think a lot of the female lead titles are treated as second-class books.

Erin, Shulkie is my current favorite, too! I was sad to see Don Slott go because I loved Jen Walters/lawyer, but I've been please so far with Peter David and the bounty hunter storyline.

Has Blake ever tried to get you to read "Fables"? Apparently, this book is the default suggestion for female readers. My hubbie likes it, but I'm not really into it.

Some of the other titles I've enjoyed since my husband started getting me to comics read are:
* Birds of Prey (not in its current iteration, go back to the Gail Simone era before they broke up the team (Chuck Dixon era also a worthy read); the old artist was a hundred times better than the current person). I love the character of Oracle. She wears glasses! She's smart! She's witty! She sometimes bosses around Batman
* Batgirl (I hated how they ended this title, but it's worth checking out some of the trade papers)
* Manhunter (assuming DC isn't taking back its decision to restart the title)
* Black Widow (there are 3 trade papers)
* Y the Last Man (Yorick is obviously a male character, but the surrounding female characters are very interesting)

Happy reading!